When I think of where my passion for helping people comes from I think of the last two years and the effect it had on me. When I say the last two years, I mean the medical complications and passing of my grandpa. My Grandpa was my biggest supporter, best friend, and hero. I remember from an early age wanting to be exactly like him. I would mimic everything from the way he ate to the words or mannerisms that he used. When I was in about eighth grade, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, which later turned into dementia. It wasn't until about the end of my sophomore year that things started to turn. He took a fall at home and landed himself in the hospital for a few weeks, where after his stint at the hospital, he was transferred to a nursing home for rehab and then later a different nursing home. It was rough seeing my hero go through something like that. He was the strongest person I knew, and now he was unable to do anything by himself. A few months later, he took another fall, that again, landed him in the hospital. This time though my family was unaware of the fall and how it occurred. By the time we caught his symptoms, he had a hematoma the size of a baseball on his hand, broken ribs, a broken vertebrae, and was septic. Due to his condition, he was transported to Carle Hospital by helicopter. This is when I decided that I wanted to be a flight nurse. After he was transported my mom and I started to talk about flight nursing as a possible career for me. I knew that I wanted to work in Emergency Medicine, but at the time, was unsure of what path I was going to take. While at Carle, his room was outside of the landing pad, so throughout my nightly visits to have dinner and do homework with him, the helicopter would come and go. Everytime we would hear it, my mom and I would rush to the window to watch it. Also, during that time I got to talk to the nurses caring for him, some of which were former flight nurses, about schooling and what it was like to be a flight nurse. Talking to them only made me all the more excited to go into nursing. After my grandpa passed away in March of 2024, I knew that I wanted to do it for him. He is the person that taught me to care for others and to want to help others. Over his time in the hospital the nurses were there for my family through it all, whether it was joking with us about Grandpa's sweet tooth or giving us hugs when we were having a rough day, they were always there. I want to be that for other families. I want to be the smiling face that walks into a room of worry or a shoulder to cry on during a tough time. I also want to carry on my Grandpa's legacy. Grandpa's legacy looks different for everyone in my family. For some, it looks like teaching their kids how to drive a tractor or backhoe, but for me it's continuing to help people. Grandpa was the guy that people called when they needed help with anything and everything. He taught me from a young age what a love for helping people looked like and I can only hope throughout my career that I can make him proud.